The Importance Of Garage Door Safety For Kids

If you have children at home or have children in your home often, then you’ll always be thinking about how you can keep those kids safe. Your garage door can pose a danger to children if you need to be made aware of how it works and supervise children when they’re around your garage. Here’s what you need to know about garage door safety for kids

Why Be Concerned About Your Garage Door?

You probably wouldn’t normally consider your garage door a safety risk. After all, you go in and out of the garage through it every single day. The problem is that door is under a lot of tension to keep it open when you use it. It’s also a heavy door and can risk falling and hurting a child. 

In fact, you may remember in the 80s and 90’s that many injuries and even deaths were reported for children due to garage doors. That led to many different safety measures being put into place by garage door manufacturers to stop this from happening. There is also legislation created in 1990 to ensure that manufacturers use tech in their products to keep children safe. While now the number of accidents with garage doors is almost zero, you still need to be vigilant to keep kids safe as they play in and around your garage. 

Be Aware Of The Danger Around Your Garage Door

Several aspects of your garage door will potentially make it dangerous for kids to be around. You can help your kids stay safe and play without worry if you’re educated on these. 

• Springs: These can be one of the most dangerous things about the garage door. Depending on the type of garage door springs you have, they’ll be found either over the head of the door or above the horizontal tracks. These hold a lot of tension, so you want to ensure that your child never tries to touch them. It’s also a good idea to teach them what it looks like if the spring is wearing out so they can let you know if they see the signs. If the springs are wearing out, they can let the door drop as they can’t hold the weight, or even snap off at high speeds and cause injury. 

• Lifting cables: Your lifting cables are what will pull the garage door up when you open it. Like the springs, these are also under a lot of pressure, so they should be something that your children are taught to avoid. 
• Photo eye sensors: are crucial tech on your garage door, as they can tell if anyone is in the door’s path when you open and close it. Two components sit on either side of the garage door and emit a beam of light between them. When the light is broken, the door will auto reverse.

You should show your children where the photo eyes are and impress upon them how they should avoid them. If the photo eyes are knocked out of place even slightly, they won’t be able to keep the child safe if they’re in the garage door path. 

Safety Rules For Your Kids

When your children are old enough, they should be able to play outside without being constantly supervised. At this point, you’ll need to set some ground rules to ensure they’re safe as they play. It’s a very good idea to set some ground rules, so you won’t have to worry as much about their safety. These rules should include:

• Check the path of the garage door: If they’re going into or out of the garage, they need to ensure that nothing is in the path of the door before they close it again. 
• The garage door remote is for emergencies: The garage door remote is not a toy to be played with. They should only use it in emergencies, such as forgetting their house keys. 
• Never tell anyone the passcode: If there’s a keypad, never tell anyone the passcode, not even friends. 
• Don’t touch the garage door as it’s moving: This includes simply touching it or trying to ‘ride’ it as it moves up and down. 
• Stay away from the door: It’s always best to play away from the garage door, to avoid being in its path if it opens or closes. 

Keep Your Garage Door Safe

There will be certain things that you can do to keep your garage door safe, so make sure you take the time to carry out these steps:

• Carry out regular maintenance: Check your garage door twice a year for any issues that may need to be addressed. If you catch these issues now and have them repaired, that will save money on further repairs and, of course, keep children safe. 
• Store the remote safely: The garage door remote is always tempting for children to play with, so it’s a good idea to store it safely. A good way of doing this is to put it somewhere children can’t reach, so they can’t be tempted to play with it and potentially get hurt. 
• Test the door’s safety features: You can do this during your garage door inspections. It’s quite easy to do, too. Test your auto reverse function by placing a block of wood in the path of the door, then trying to close it. If the system works as it should, you should see the door reverse back up rather than hit the wood.

Conclusion 

Your garage door can pose a danger to children if not used properly. If you teach them about garage door safety and maintain the door regularly, you can keep them safe. The sooner you teach your kids, the safer they will be when they’re playing outdoors. Now you know the importance of garage door safety for kids. If you need help, call a garage door repair expert to give you a hand. You’ll soon see the difference that it can make.